Layers of Paint
by cg2006
Summary: He didn’t want that mask anymore. He longed for someone to come along and unearth his real self from beneath all those layers. SasuNaruish. Oneshot. maybe a little angstyish.


I don't own Naruto, yeah. ...hi.

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_Chip—chip—chip_

Naruto Uzumaki wiped away the sweat on his brow and cursed Mr. Kawasaki, the principal. As punishment for spray painting the wall of the school building, Naruto had to scrub it all off and then, just to be evil, Mr. Kawasaki made him go to the park and scrape off all of the old paint on the playground equipment. Most of the paint was chipped already, but the City Hall decided to spend money to give the old equipment a new paint job. Mr. Kawasaki had been very helpful by volunteering Naruto to go scrape off the old paint on Sunday. So here he was now, doing exactly just that. He cursed Mr. Kawasaki again.

_Chip—chip_

"Aah!" the boy cried out. The chisel had slipped while he was scraping the bar of the swing set and the blade dug into his thumb. "Che." He gritted his teeth and squeezed his thumb, watching the blood gush out. He put his thumb in his mouth and sucked the blood away and continued chipping away.

_Chip—chip—chip_

Green flecks of paint fell to the woodchip covered ground. Now there was red paint showing through. Naruto wiped his brow again and turned around. He leaned back against the cool metal bar and squinted up at the sky. It was sunny at the moment, but there were a few clouds drifting in the sky, too. Suddenly everything dimmed as a large mass of clouds covered up the sun, blocking the warm rays of light. He closed his eyes as he felt a comfortable breeze coming. It ruffled his spiky blonde hair and his sweat soaked t-shirt.

He opened his eyes and walked over to the grass and picked up a plastic bag that contained his lunch. With a sigh, he collapsed down onto the soft cool blades of grass. He was exhausted, the sun had been beating down his back the whole time he'd been there. He glanced up at the cloudy sky again, feeling unusually calm. He liked it, he only felt this way when he was alone. He took a drink from his water bottle and closed his eyes, relaxing and just thinking. Thinking about all the people in his life. Most of them weren't very nice to him, but Naruto still yearned for their attention. He did stupid things, all jus to get some sort of acknowledgment.

He didn't have a watch with him, but he guessed it was already early afternoon and decided to eat his lunch then. He looked at the swing set. He was almost done, the red seemed to be the last layer of paint left. The swing set was green when he first got there to start working and he'd chipped through blue, yellow, then green again, and now red. _How many freaking layers are there_, Naruto wondered.

He went back to work and began chipping at the last red layer. The job had started to become slightly comforting. While Naruto scraped the paint away, he had lots of time to sort through all his memories. He became angry as he remembered, but as each fleck of paint fell to the ground, he began to feel more and more lonely. He was angry because they never paid him any attention unless he did something stupid, and he didn't want to do that anymore. He tried to be like the others, walking around like he was wearing a mask covered with layers of paint. Each layer tried to be what they wanted so they would be friends with him, but all they did was push him away and make fun of him. They didn't want to be friends with him at all, for some reason. Even so, the layers just kept building up and hardening. Naruto had never felt so lonely before as he thought of himself and his mask. He wished there was someone to help him chip away all the old layers of paint. He didn't want that mask anymore. He longed for someone to come along and unearth his real self from beneath all those layers.

The dull grey metal of the bar finally appeared beneath the red spots. Naruto frowned as a thought passed his mind: _"What if I am like that? What if I am dull and grey on the inside? Is that why people are always acting? They put on their masks, because they are afraid to show their real selves. They are afraid other people will make fun of them?" _

Naruto wondered more as he continued chipping away the red paint. But on the inside, he felt afraid and he slapped more layers onto his mask with each thought.

Suddenly he felt warmth on his back. The sun had come back. Along with that, there was a new unfamiliar shadow behind him. Naruto stopped scraping and turned around. There was another boy standing there. His hands were in his pockets and his dark almost black eyes stared at the blonde haired boy. Then he walked closer to Naruto. Who is that guy, Naruto wondered.

"Sasuke Uchiha," the new boy said, as if he knew what he was wondering. He looked at the swing set behind Naruto and said, "You've been here for a while." Naruto just nodded.

There was a silence but then Sasuke suddenly said, "Tell me about yourself."

Naruto thought it was odd for a complete stranger to suddenly ask that, but thought it was even stranger when he answered. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

"Where do you live?" the other boy asked.

"Not too far, a few blocks from here."

"I don't live that far from here either.

"You've been out here for a while. Alone. Why?"

"I got in trouble at school. Mr. Kawasaki is evil, he made me scrub the wall. Then he made me come here and scratch off all the paint on the equipment so they can repaint it good," Naruto said.

"What about your family? You've spent half the day here. Do they approve of that?"

Naruto looked down. "I have no family. There isn't anyone waiting for me at home anyway." He had said this many times before, but saying it to this stranger sounded different. He put down his chisel and moved to sit down by his plastic bag. The other boy followed and sat down next to him.

"When I was little," Naruto suddenly said while he messed around with the bag. "I used to watch all the other kids with their parents. At school, they came to pick them up. At the park, they had picnics and played with their dogs. It made me feel sad. Sad that I didn't have someone like that." Naruto suddenly blushed, feeling that he was rambling. Sasuke probably didn't even know what he was talking about. But the other boy just nodded a little, without looking at Naruto.

"I know how you feel," he said. The blonde boy looked up, startled. _Does he know…?_

"I have no parents either. It kind of hurt, didn't it? Watching those people together with their family. You felt left out." His gaze settled on Naruto and he smiled a little. "Didn't you?"

Naruto blushed again but nodded. They both continued to share their similar feelings, getting to know each other. For once, he felt really truly happy. Inside, he thanked this person. He felt the mask crumble and shatter into pieces along with the layers of paint. He was being himself around this stranger, who wasn't anymore, and that person wasn't making fun of his real self at all. For once, Naruto was truly happy.

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Hm..probably didn't make much sense. lol. I do hope it did, but it probably doesn't unless you're me. It was an idea I got last night, yeah. and i've been kind of depressed since a few days ago. so..yeah. 


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